The Berlin Papers in the Bodleian Library

Abstract

Upon being awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1979, Sir Isaiah Berlin wrote a short article, ‘The Three Strands of My Life’ , in which he gave a considered response to a question asked at the time by an interviewer, about whether it was true to say that Berlin had been formed by three traditions: Russian, British and Jewish. To his Russian origins Berlin ascribed his lifelong interest in ideas, leading to the development of his work on liberalism and pluralism. The British tradition he described as a sense of civilised human reality and ‘a quality of life founded on compromise and toleration as these have been developed in the British world’ , with which he identified strongly, having lived in Britain for sixty years. His Jewish identity he felt to be so deeply rooted that it was impossible for him to analyse it, though he described his sharing of a common past, feelings and language with the Jewish community, and related this to a wider sense of fraternity in other cultures as well as his own.